Publications

Department of Energy Proposes New Procedures for Authorizing LNG Exports

06.13.2014

On May 29, 2014, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) announced a proposed change to its procedure for authorizing Liquefied Natural Gas (“LNG”) export licenses to export LNG from the lower-48 states to countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Under the proposed new procedure, DOE will review applications and make final public interest determinations only after completion of the review required by environmental laws and regulations included in the National Environmental Policy Act review (“NEPA review”), discontinuing the practice of issuing conditional authorization determinations. Under the previous practice, and until the proposed change is adopted, DOE considers applications in the order that they were received, regardless of whether the application completed the NEPA review process. The full alert is available here, and the DOE release is available here.